Starke Commissioners Receive Bass Lake Beach Update

Bass Lake Beach
Bass Lake Beach
The Starke County Commissioners received a report regarding the Bass Lake Beach and Campground during their regular meeting yesterday morning and were informed by County Sanitarian Chris Dalton that all violations that had been found at the business have been addressed and corrected. Dalton presented two inspection reports, one from July 30 and one from the following day; the first report indicated seven violations that needed addressed, while the second report cut that list down to three.

The report from July 30 laid out violations including toilets in the women’s rest room continuously flushing, no hot water and loose sink faucet handles; urinal’s in the men’s restroom continuously running with loose sink faucet handles and no hot water; two boards missing at the end of a pier; many boards missing on another pier; broken handles on outside water valves for garden host hook-ups; pot holes in the campground driveway; and several places on piers not level with other pier sections, which creates a trip hazard. This report was created with the help of Doug Williamson from the Indiana State Department of Health.

The report from July 31 indicated three items that had not been addressed: the piers were still missing boards, no hot water was present in the bathrooms, and the trip hazard created by piers was still present. The report also noted that the Starke County Health Department notified Williamson about these problems.

Starke County Commissioner Kathy Norem explained that Dalton claims each of these remaining violations have since been addressed and corrected, an assertion that won’t be confirmed until Williamson returns to do another inspection.

The Starke County Council meets in two weeks when they will discuss the possibility of creating a county parks and recreation committee to oversee the beach and other non-municipal public parks. Establishment of such a body would be up to the council, and the commissioners sent them a favorable recommendation to do so.